Game slows down for Quakes' Wondolowski

EARTHQUAKES

Updated 11:37 pm, Saturday, November 3, 2012

Photo: Ross William Hamilton, Associated Press

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Quakes forward Chris Wondolowski, a Danville native, tied an MLS record with 27 regular- season goals in 2012. He leads San Jose in the playoffs against David Beckham, Landon Donovan and the L.A. Galaxy on Sunday. less

Quakes forward Chris Wondolowski, a Danville native, tied an MLS record with 27 regular- season goals in 2012. He leads San Jose in the playoffs against David Beckham, Landon Donovan and the L.A. Galaxy on ... more

Photo: Ross William Hamilton, Associated Press

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PORTLAND, OR - OCTOBER 27: Chris Wondolowski #8 of San Jose Earthquakes signals to a teammate as he heads upfield during the second half of the game against the Portland Timbers at Jeld-Wen Field on October 27, 2012 in Portland, Oregon. Wondolowski scored a goal in the first half that tied an MLS season record for goals scored and the game ended in a 1-1 draw. (Photo by Steve Dykes/Getty Images) less

PORTLAND, OR - OCTOBER 27: Chris Wondolowski #8 of San Jose Earthquakes signals to a teammate as he heads upfield during the second half of the game against the Portland Timbers at Jeld-Wen Field on October 27, ... more

Photo: Steve Dykes, Getty Images

Game slows down for Quakes' Wondolowski

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Chris Wondolowski says he has never been timed in the 40-yard dash. Good thing, he says. "I'd be among the slowest."

In a typical Major League Soccer game, the Earthquakes forward is among the slowpokes, he insists.

"That's accurate," defender Jason Hernandez said. "He wouldn't win many footraces. It proves you don't have to be the fastest or the strongest to be successful."

Successful, of course, is putting it mildly. Last week, Wondo pumped in a penalty kick against Portland for his 27th goal of the season, tying Roy Lassiter's 16-year-old MLS record.

Aside from Barry Bonds, the Danville native is probably the best homegrown athlete for a local pro team in many years.

He also had seven assists in the regular season and broke the league record for game-winning goals with 11. He won't get the underwear ad that David Beckham got, but he'd settle for the MLS Cup.

The Quakes begin their title search against Beckham, Landon Donovan and the Los Angeles Galaxy at 6 p.m. Sunday in the first leg of the Western Conference semifinal in Carson (Los Angeles County). San Jose hosts the second leg at 8 p.m. Wednesday at Buck Shaw Stadium.

There was very little in Wondolowski's background to trigger thoughts that he'd become a superstar forward in MLS. For one thing, he's American. There was always a bias in the league toward foreign strikers. They're the ones who often got the teams' big designated-player money.

Wondolowski, 29, didn't become a star until he was 26. That is, unless you count his 17-goal season in 2004 for the Chico Rooks of the old Men's Premier Soccer League, a league that basked in obscurity.

Maybe he should legally shorten his full name to Wondo. Maybe it would entice U.S. national coach Juergen Klinsmann to give him more of a shot.

Wondolowski thinks the continuity of having coach Frank Yallop and his staff as well as a core of teammates over the past four years in San Jose has helped him immeasurably.

"We understand the movement between us and where we want the ball," he said. This year's Quakes were loaded with talent at every position. "When you have a team as deep as we are," he said, "if you concentrate on one player, it's going to leave holes somewhere else."

Self-aggrandizement is not Wondo's style. So, if you press him on how he does what he does, the best he'll offer is this: "You have to be quick with your mind so you can create the space you need."

Hernandez thinks his work rate is extraordinary. "He understands he's not physically given all the tools," he said. "He works very hard and very smart. His movement and technique to create space in front of the goal is unmatched.

"One other thing that people don't touch on: In his career before he got hot, he played a lot of reserve games. That workmanlike mentality, that underdog mentality - where you have to earn everything you get - separates him from a lot of players. There are a lot of guys who get catered to early in their careers. He had the drive, the hunger to succeed."

Brian Dunseth, a former MLS and U.S. national player who is a soccer analyst for NBC Sports, thinks Wondolowski's stunning career is "a perfect example of why MLS needs the reserve league." Without the reserve league, "he wouldn't even be in the league."

For the vast majority of MLS players, you can tell their dominant foot, Dunseth said. Not Wondo.

Besides being equally sound shooting with either leg, Dunseth said, "he's got the little things. He finishes his runs to the post. It sounds simple, but it's not. If it's not there, he'll do it again and come to a different spot. That's infuriating for a defender."

He wonders if Wondolowski is obsessive-compulsive. "I haven't seen him day after day, but I've seen him enough," he said. "His biggest attribute is his incredible ability to put shots on frame."

Dominic Kinnear was Wondolowski's coach with the Houston Dynamo until the team traded the reserve player back to San Jose in 2009. "We were stacked at forward, so there wasn't a spot for him," Kinnear said.

He thinks anticipation has a great deal to do with Wondolowski's exploits. "A lot of people react when the play happens. He moves before the play happens."

Chris Dangerfield, a former Quakes midfielder and now the team's radio analyst, said finding the right space at the right time is "a sixth sense that great goal scorers have, to be on the same page as their teammates. He's playing with a very talented group. They work tirelessly offensively and defensively."

Dangerfield credits forwards Steven Lenhart and Alan Gordon with "continually chasing and fighting for every ball. They create chances for Wondo because they force defenders to make mistakes."

And he makes the most of those chances.

"His movement inside the 18-yard box is arguably the best in the league," Taylor Twellman, a former national team player who works for ESPN, said. "It's finding the half-yard between him and the defender and being able to make something of it."

What he does "is not a secret in MLS. When you do it for a year, that's one thing. When you do it three years in a row, that's something else."

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